Welcome to the Liberty Media Corporation 2021 Q3 earnings call. During the presentation, all participants will be in a listen-only mode. Afterwards, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. At that time, if you have a question, please press star one on your telephone. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded November fourth, 2021. I would now like to turn the conference over to Courtnee Chun, Chief Portfolio Officer. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good morning. Before we begin, we'd like to remind everyone that this call includes certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual events or results could differ materially due to a number of risks and uncertainties, including those mentioned in Liberty Media's most recent forms 10-K and 10-Q, or Liberty Media Acquisition's Form F-1 registration statement filed with the SEC. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this call and Liberty Media and Liberty Media Acquisition expressly disclaim any obligation or undertaking to disseminate any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statement contained herein to reflect any change in Liberty Media or Liberty Media Acquisition Corporation's expectations with regard thereto, or any change in events, conditions, or circumstances on which any such statement is based.
On today's call, we will discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures for Liberty Media and SiriusXM, including adjusted OIBDA and adjusted EBITDA. The required definitions and reconciliations for Liberty Media and SiriusXM, schedules 1 and 2, can be found at the end of the earnings press release issued today, which is available on Liberty Media's website. Now I'd like to turn the call over to Greg Maffei, Liberty's President and CEO.
Thank you, Courtney, and good morning to all of you. Today speaking on the call, we will also have Formula One's President and CEO, Stefano Domenicali, and Liberty's Chief Accounting Officer and Principal Financial Officer, Brian Wendling. This quarter, no surprise, we're going to start with the Braves. World champions for the first time since 1995. As Hank Aaron said, in playing ball and in life, a person occasionally gets the opportunity to do something great. When the time comes, only two things matter, being prepared to seize the moment and having the courage to take your best swing. Clearly, the Braves did that, and I want to thank Ted Turner for reminding us of that quote. Congrats to our tremendous players for their performance.
To the Braves' Leiper, Snit, for whom all the players have such well-deserved admiration, to Alex Anthopoulos with his excellent mid-season trades, and to the rest of our top quality Braves management team, Terry, Mike, and Derek, and to all the Braves country, most of all. This was an excellent team effort, particularly in game six in Houston, starting with Soler's ginormous 500-ish three-run homer in the third that cleared the train tracks, and Max Fried pitching the lights out despite getting stag spiked in the first inning. It was an amazing comeback since the All-Star break when we were 44 and 45, and the team wisely invested in talent at that trade deadline, which helped turn the season around and also generated a great financial performance. As I said, the financial performance of the team was as impressive as the on-field performance.
The season-to-date baseball revenue per home game is up 11% compared to 2019, and retail per caps are up 33% versus 2019. The Braves ended the season No. 2 in Major League Baseball in regular attendance at 2.3 million. This is close to our historical average of 2.4, despite only reaching 100% capacity in May. With our on-field success, we've already sold thousands of new season ticket plans for the 2022 season. The Battery was booming throughout the playoffs, and we estimate crowds were well in excess of 100,000 for each of our World Series games. Very exciting. Let me turn now to Liberty SiriusXM. This morning, we also had some good news going over 80% at SiriusXM through a tax-free exchange, and we now expect it to be an ATB.
Accordingly, all future distributions from SiriusXM will be tax-free. We did continue our share repurchases, repurchasing 98 million across the A's and the K's from August through September, excuse me, through October. The discount remains, and we repurchased at a look-through price on SiriusXM of just over $4. We continue to take advantage of that discount. We also sold our entire iHeartMedia stake at an average price of $25.31 per share for after-tax proceeds of $175 million, the majority of which we sold after quarter end in October. This was well-timed, and we sold the stock for a 40% pre-tax gain. This investment was intended to take an option in adjacent business, but we like the hand we have at SiriusXM and now have additional cash to fuel incremental buybacks.
Looking at SiriusXM itself, strong results for the quarter, 616,000 in self-paying net adds, the highest quarterly figure ever recorded. We attained our full-year guidance in nine months. We also reported for the quarter the highest revenue and EBITDA ever. We have a continued focus on growing engagement outside the vehicle. Perhaps you saw our very entertaining SiriusXM house ad campaign. We have been driving impressive growth on the advertising platform with revenue up 31%. We are back to producing live content and experiences with our Small Stage series, and we hosted Dave Matthews, Brandi Carlile, Coldplay, and John Mulaney. Further on content, we completed an investment in a content agreement with Audio Up, which will create new original scripted podcasts for the SiriusXM platforms.
Turning briefly to Live Nation, I'd note it reports later today, so I really can't comment on the results other than to say demand has endured, is now being met with supply, and we are pleased with the equity performance up 43% year-to-date. Turning to Formula One Group, a thrilling season continues. The lead for the Drivers' Championship has gone back and forth between Max and Lewis. Among the rest of the drivers, there is tight competition across the grid. In the Constructors' Championship, Mercedes and Red Bull are fighting for first with McLaren and Ferrari in a tight battle for third. Fans are attending and tuning in. We have never seen such a crowd in Austin, for example, which set an F1 attendance record over the race weekend.
Of the 400,000 people that showed up in Austin, almost 70% were attending their first Grand Prix. Usually, this figure is more like in the mid-30s%. As Stefano will discuss in a moment, recently released results of F1 fan survey, and our demographic is skewing younger, something fewer sports can claim. We are already looking towards 2022 and have announced a 23-race calendar. We are excited to have our second race in the U.S. and welcome the Miami GP in May. Demand is high. 275,000 people pre-registered to purchase tickets as compared to a planned capacity of around 80,000. 1,800 people have placed a $5,000 deposit for luxury hospitality, Paddock Club, and suites sold throughout the. They sold out the available inventory on the first day.
We've also sold through the available grandstand tickets in the first day. Turning briefly to LMAC, we continue to review opportunities. We believe the changes in the SPAC market will ultimately be to Liberty's benefit. With that, I'd like to turn it over to Brian for more on our financial results.
Thank you, Greg. Hard to follow that, but we'll give it our best try. Good morning, everyone. Liberty SiriusXM Group has attributable cash and liquid investments of approximately $365 million, + $50 million in public debt and equity securities at the corporate level. This excludes $164 million of cash held directly at SiriusXM. We also have $1.1 billion of undrawn margin loan capacity at the parent level. Note that a portion of our cash will be used in early 2022 to repay our 2.25% Live Nation exchangeable bonds. We issued the redemption notice on these bonds just after the quarter. Based on the fair value of the liability at quarter end, the amount of cash used would be $532 million.
As of November 3, the value of our SiriusXM stock held at Liberty SiriusXM Group, pro forma for the exchange it announced today, was almost $20.8 billion, and the value of Live Nation stock held was $7.3 billion. We have $3.2 billion in principal amount of debt against these holdings. Total Liberty SiriusXM Group attributed principal amount of debt is $13.1 billion, which includes $0.9 billion of debt at SiriusXM. As you saw in our earnings release, the Liberty SiriusXM Group outstanding share count as of 10/31 pro forma for the exchange would have been 336 million shares. Formula One Group had attributed cash and liquid investments of $1.6 billion at quarter end, which excludes $585 million of cash at F1.
F1 Group also has $194 million of public debt and equity securities. Total Formula One Group attributable principal amount of debt was $3.4 billion, which includes $2.9 billion of debt at F1, leaving $546 million at the corporate level. F1's $500 million revolver is undrawn, and Formula One leverage at the end of the quarter was 5.6 times, very near our target range of 5-5.5 times. Note that we are still in a period of covenant waiver until March 2022. Please also note that beginning January 1, 2021, F1 began reclassifying certain components previously reported in other F1 revenue into primary F1 revenue to better align with the way it currently evaluates the business.
Components reclassified into primary F1 revenue include F1 TV subscriptions, F2 and F3 related fees, broadcast origination and support fees, and digital advertising, among others. Additional detail including the impact of the revenue reclassification for the years ended December 31, 2019, and 2020 can be found in Schedule three of our earnings press release posted to our website. At quarter-end, Braves Group had attributable cash and liquid investments of $134 million, which excludes $83 million of restricted cash. Braves Group had attributable principal amount of debt of $721 million. Liberty and our consolidated subsidiaries are in compliance with their debt covenants at quarter-end. With that, I'll turn it over to Stefano to discuss Formula One.
Thanks, Brian. The 2021 season continues to underline F1 position as the undisputed pinnacle of motorsport. Hamilton and Verstappen are still battling for the championship, with the lead going back and forth almost every race. This continues to produce breathtaking moments, such as in Monza, where a coming together saw Max's car end up on the top of Lewis, and in Austin, where we witnessed a spirited race to emerge ahead after turn one. Fierce battle extends further down the field. We continue to see varied faces on the podium, including our one and two for McLaren Monza, Checo finding his stride at Red Bull, and Ferrari's return to the podium in Sochi. In the Constructors' Championship, Mercedes is managing to retain a slight lead over Red Bull. With the fight for third between McLaren and Ferrari even closer.
We held our second sprint event in Monza, which was again well-received and certainly impacted the Sunday race outcome. We will hold our third and final sprint event in Brazil and are actively collecting feedback to make the sprint events even better in 2022. As restrictions have started to be easier, we have seen the return of large crowds to our races, many at capacity, and the Paddock Club is operating fully once again. We were thrilled as Formula One returned to Zandvoort for the first time since 1985. The Orange Army came out in full force to see Max win, and the promoter over-delivered in every aspect. In Austin, we welcome 140,000 fans on Sunday and set a new attendance record with 400,000 over the weekend.
We finalized the 2021 calendar with Qatar, filling the weekend of November 19, 2021, thereby creating a three-race run in the Middle East to the end of 2021 season. This agreement is part of a longer 10-year deal starting 2023 after Qatar hosts the FIFA World Cup in 2022. The draw and popularity of Formula One has never been greater. This is reinforced by a recently published Nielsen and Motorsport survey covering 187 countries. Participants identified that exciting is Formula One number one brand attribute, with competitive and entertaining also making the top five for the first time. The sample of response was the largest and most diverse ever, with female participation doubling, and the average age decreasing four years to 32.
We know we are moving in the right direction, and engagement remains strong across all platforms. On the digital front, unique users across the F1 website and app this year are up 56% compared to 2020. Social engagement continues to grow, reaching nearly 35 million social interaction for the USGP, 52% higher than the last USGP in 2019. Eighty million social interaction for the Italian GP, a record number for Formula One. The total number of those following F1 on social media now stands at over 45 million. The TV audience are tuning in, and we have seen strong growth over 2020 and 2019 in many markets, notably France, the Netherlands, Greece, Spain, Hungary, and the United States.
F1 TV remains a great way for fans to catch all the action of the race weekends. Peak concurrent views for race days have consistently been more than 2.7 times higher than 2020 season average. We were excited to announce a 23-race calendar for 2022. It is a great mix of historic and newer venues, and we will welcome Miami, which will be our second race in the United States. We look forward to this calendar, which when paired with the new regulation and car design to create closer racing, should produce another thrilling season. We do hope that 2022 feels more normal than the last two years, but we can draw on the skills we have honed to deal with any challenge that we continue to face.
Due to the ongoing pandemic condition, China will not be included on the 2022 calendar, but will be restored to the calendar as soon as conditions allow. We look forward to our long-term partnership. We remain in the enviable position of demand for races continuing to exceed the available supply of weekends. In the area of media rights, we made two announcements. Following the news that the top sport channels in Asia would close, we have reached agreement with multiple broadcaster partners across the region through the end of the 2022 season. This ensures that our fans in Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia, Vietnam, Myanmar, and the Chinese administrative region of Hong Kong can watch the conclusion of the 2021 season and every race in 2022.
We also extended agreements with Disney in Japan and India, Star India. On the other side of the world, we extended our successful broadcast partnership with Canal+ in France until 2024, which includes their dedicated F1 channel. Sessions from four Grand Prix weekends will be broadcast live and free-to-air, along with event highlights throughout the term. We continue to work with our commercial partners and announce the Crypto.com Overtake Award in addition to their title sponsorship of our sprint events. It will be awarded to the driver who has completed the most overtakes throughout the entirety of the 2021 season, which concurrently is a battle between two veteran drivers, Vettel and Alonso. The 2021 F1 Esports Series Pro Championship presented by Aramco is now two events in, following our highest ever number of fans attempting to qualify.
Drivers continue to race remotely, but the hugely popular competition is broadcasted from the Gfinity Arena in London, along with the live shows that include Natalie Pinkham, Tom Deacon, and Nick Hamilton. The action in the Pro Championship is mirroring the action on the track with multiple podium finishers across the first six races. This year, qualification now open to a challenge in the official F1 21 video game developed by Codemasters. In line with our goal of being net zero carbon by 2030, we are aiming to help develop 100% sustainable fuel for our new generation of Formula One hybrid engines. The focus is on drop-in fuel that can be used as a standard internal combustion engines without any modification to the engine, with a target to achieve greenhouse gas emission savings of at least 65% relative to fossil derivative petrol.
The impact of this development could be enormous, with 1.8 billion cars estimated to be on the road by 2030, with only 8% of those being pure battery electric vehicles. Internal combustion engine and hybrid will continue to be essential to air and sea travel, as well as the haulage industry. Our partners are all focused on ESG initiatives. Williams set an ambitious target to be climate positive by 2030. They have launched a comprehensive sustainability strategy that encompasses the climate, biodiversity stewardships, sustainable innovation, industry access for all the purpose-driven leadership. On the promoter side, the Grand Prix de France became the first Grand Prix organizer to receive the highest level of certification by the FIA.
Their commitment to a sustainable development approach includes the elimination of a single-use plastics, a mobility plan that significantly reduced the carbon footprint of spectator travel, and a strong commitment to social responsibility. With 17 races completed and well on our way to delivering a championship record of 22 this season despite the ongoing pandemic, I'm so incredibly proud of the F1 team and all our partners. The flexibility and the perseverance displayed all year is truly impressive, and it has been so rewarding to see a huge number of fans back at races celebrating our sport. We all see the enormous opportunity in front of us, and we are committed to our vision and strategy to grow and continue to evolve our sport. Avanti tutta. Full speed ahead. Now I will turn the call back over to Greg. Thank you. Bye-bye. Ciao.
Thanks, Stefano and Brian. To our listening audience, we look forward to seeing you on Thursday, November eighteenth at our annual investor meeting. The full experience will be offered in person at The Times Center and virtually. The link to register can be found on our homepage. Please note all in-person attendees must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19. We appreciate your continued interest in Liberty Media and hope you all stay safe and healthy. With that, operator, I'd like to open up for questions.
Thank you. We take our first question from Bryan Kraft with Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Thank you. Good morning, and congrats on the Braves winning the World Series. I had two questions. One on iHeart and one on Formula One. On Formula One, you seem optimistic that 2022 will mark a return to full operating performance. Assuming that happens, do you think 2022 could be the year where we see for the first time all the benefits of the last 4.5 years initiatives coming together at once to drive financial performance that is, you know, really a step change higher than 2019 pre-COVID? My other question is, just curious, Greg, what made you decide to sell your iHeart stock? Is that no longer a strategic interest for SiriusXM? So just, you know, what changed there? Thanks.
Well, I think I'll let Stefano comment on the Formula One as well. Look, I think 2022, we're gonna see a return of many elements of the business. Will everything come to pass, and will we be on a new higher plateau? I think it's just the beginning, and we'll see continued success from that level and above. Will everything come together? Always hard to predict, not only because of some of the issues around, you know, what contracts get executed and what sponsorship opportunities, but obviously, could there be the risk of attendance issues into 2022 with COVID? To be determined. I do think we will perform better in 2022 than 2021 and better than we did in 2019, substantially better. I think the trend, it continues to be up.
Stefano, I don't know what you would add.
I would say, Greg, you synthesized perfectly what I believe will happen. Of course, you said one thing that is really important. The success we were able to lead this year despite the pandemic was due to the fact that we were flexible and with our teams, with the partners, with the promoters, to make sure that we would done this championship. I think that there is still this thing to put into perspective because we don't know exactly how the situation will develop, of course. With the way that we can see, it indicates the situation is improving. I would say that all the elements and all the initiatives that we put in place in the last couple of years, for sure we're gonna pay back starting from next year.
As far as iHeartMedia, we took a stake because we thought it was attractive, and it created some potential optionality. It's not something we're looking to pursue, so it seemed to make sense to recognize the gain we had and utilize the proceeds to go after our own discount and our own opportunities.
Got it. Okay. Thanks to you both. Appreciate it.
Thanks for the question, and thanks for the call out on the Braves.
Thank you. We take our next question from Vijay Jayant with Evercore. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Good morning. Greg Maffei did an interesting transaction, at least we saw it announced last night. Just curious on why that was structured as a stock swap with a shareholder to increase your ownership. Looks like you're past 80% on Sirius now. Does that sort of suggest that Sirius could be qualified as an ATB? If that is the case, now you probably have three ATBs and with January, I think Formula One becomes an ATB. What does that mean? Are we sort of undoing the whole tracking stock structure? What other flexibility does that get you? Thoughts on that. Thanks.
Yeah. Well, I think you rightly noted we undertook a transaction where we did a tax-free exchange to make us an ATB out of this. You know, and our famous line around here is no plan or intent, and that's one we. If you ever visit my office, you'll see I have some pillows which say that. Thank you for courtesy of Courtney. But look, our whole idea is to create optionality. We have nothing to announce today about that. We would've gone over $80 probably with SiriusXM's continued buyback, but the way we transacted with the tax-free exchange allowed to become an ATB or something we expect will be an ATB and creates optionality and flexibility. So no plans, but we always like having ATBs. Can't have enough of them.
Great. Thanks so much.
Thank you. We take our next question from Jeffrey Wlodarczak with Pivotal Research. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Good morning, I'll also congratulate you guys on the Braves winning the World Series. I think that was kind of out of left field for a lot of folks, so congratulations. Crossing 80% barrier in SiriusXM. I guess I'll follow up on the SiriusXM question with the obligatory now that you're at 80, you know, should we expect something like what you're doing with Charter, where you'll maintain your stake around 80 and then, you know, participate in their buyback? Also on SiriusXM, post their call, the U.S. Steel CEO made some comments that multiple auto manufacturers are ramping their steel deliveries, implying the chip shortages had bottomed out, beginning in the fourth quarter, first quarter. Are you seeing the same thing from your auto partners? Thanks.
You know, on the what we'll do, we obviously have no, as I said, you know, no plan or intent. We try to keep our options open. We would not be able to sell directly back to or sell our stock in the marketplace and hold at $80, above $80 unless we had an agreement to sell directly to the company, which we do not have at this time. Probably dividends are the tax-free most attractive thing, and we can make a determination about whether we wanna sell stock into the marketplace and be above $80. We'll make that determination over time. I would note that would not be tax-free unless we had an ability to sell directly to the company, which we do not have at this moment.
On the SAR, you know, it's going, I think, you know, things will get better. That's our expectation. But clearly, the fact that we had a lower SAR for many months in the second half of 2021 means the top of the funnel is not as full. We do expect it to recover and refill, but it will mean we'll have a, you know, less opportunity for net new adds, self-pay net adds, into 2022. We'll see when it comes. We are optimistic that our partners will get on track, but we will have a, you know, we had a great self-pay net add quarter. It'll be a little tougher in 2022 as we head in unless that SAR refills quickly.
Thank you.
Thank you. We take our next question from Doug Mitchelson with Credit Suisse. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Well, thanks so much. Congratulations on the Braves as well, Greg. Now we ought to say that. A couple questions. Was the 253 Letter Agreement between Liberty and SiriusXM required for the ATB consideration? I think you were implying that on comments. I just wanted to be sure.
We constructed a transaction where we had a tax-free exchange of our stock, which, that is what was required to, we believe, to make this an ATB rather than the alternative, which looked like it might naturally occur, which was to have SiriusXM buy back their own stock and push us over 80. The actions we took, the positive action of doing a tax-free exchange, we believe allows this to be an ATB.
Thanks for that. Maybe I'm missing something simple, but what was the purpose of the 253 Letter Agreement between Liberty and Sirius then?
I'll let Renee talk about that.
Sure. The 253 Letter Agreement was actually the result of a negotiation between us and the special committee at Sirius XM. There were some additional materials that needed to be delivered in connection with our tax-free exchange, so we did need to engage in a negotiation with the special committee, and this was an ask that they made and we agreed to.
Okay. Greg, I think it's gonna be hard to get you to talk too much about the relationship between Liberty SiriusXM and SiriusXM until the Analyst Day, but let me try this way. Is it more appealing to create long-term value by taking advantage of a persistent discount over a long period as capital becomes available to do so, say, using SiriusXM dividends to buy back, you know, Liberty SiriusXM shares? Or would you rather close the discount as rapidly as possible? What's the better path to the greatest long-term value creation?
This is a debate since the beginning of time, and you could think about buybacks. Are buybacks to be done to buy your own stock at a discount or to try and get your stock up? We generally favor the long-term path and like A in that alternative. Clearly, there is an advantage here to seeing the discount close as well. I think it's a win-win, Doug. Okay. We'll wait for the Analyst Day for more on that one. Thank you.
Thank you. We take our next question from Ben Swinburne with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Great. Thank you. Good morning. I'm not gonna say anything about the Braves. It's been covered. On Formula One, I guess two questions. I mean-
... all of the sort of qualitative and quantitative, but certainly qualitative data is the sports having an unbelievable year. I'm wondering if you could talk about sort of two opportunities. One, in race promotion, are you-- do you think you're strengthening kind of your pricing power with your host partners as you move into, you know, renewals over the next few years, given all the attendance trends? I realize we just came out of COVID where things were incredibly dicey on that front, but it seems like that part of your business may have more pricing than we've seen in the past. That's the first one. Then secondly, next year you've got a new car. The budget cap, I think, steps down again.
You guys wanted to make the sport more attractive for new teams, you know, in new capital to come into the sport, new engine manufacturers. I guess question is, there's a lot of rumors out there, but I'm curious if you are bullish, you're gonna see that start to really show up in the business, in 2022 and beyond. Thank you.
I'll take the first shot, and I'll let Stefano obviously add. Look, I think we the strength of the sport in terms of the demand and the audience helps us in many ways. We've seen new cities want to enter like Qatar. We've seen increased performance and increased success of existing promoters. For example, Austin adding extra seating. All of those allow us, frankly, both sides of that allow us to get a better deal and to do better, both with the new partners and with the existing partners. All to the good on the promotion side. Stefano, would you add anything on promotion?
No, I think that you're totally right, and I think that it's not only a matter of fee, but it's also something related to the quality of the show that we are bringing in. What we are also keen on is offering to the people that are attending to the races a unique experience, a physical experience where there is a Formula One with all the things related to the contract with fans, partners and sponsor together, and living something that is really unique. The situation is really positive to date, will help also that dimension of the sport. If I may jump in on the second part of the question, Greg, if it's okay for you.
Yeah. Please.
You know, I think that we are talking about new regulation. We are talking about the fact that in the discussion that is coming out, you see that the value of each team is getting higher due to the investment that we are doing on the cap, on the control of the cost, on the fact that the sport is in a very good health despite the COVID situation. Therefore, the fact that we want to have a more attractive sport doesn't mean that we need to have more teams. I mean, if as we really focus in on, sorry, the new regulation will enable the cars to be more and more easy to be overtaken by the one to the other.
We have an incredible number of drivers that we can allow that sport. It's been a matter of finding the right balance with the fact there will be for sure new ones that want to come in, versus the fact we want to give the value that they are already in into the sport. Then, in the discussion that we are all hearing on the public domain about what is the future technological choices that we are taking for the future powertrain, the fact that the new manufacturers are discussing with the FIA, you know, it's a very, very encouraging situation because that means that F1 has taken the right technical decisions for its future.
Once again, we are living an incredible moment of a great opportunity, in order to consolidate the sport that is really in a great shape today.
Yeah. I would just echo some of the thoughts I have that Stefano said. Look, one of the important things was to help the ecosystem, and you've really seen the strength of the teams do so much better. I appreciate all the kind words they now say about Liberty and about Formula One's management. I think that's because, guess what? The value of the teams has gone up dramatically. We knew that was necessary, and the actions we took with the budget cap and the like, and changing some of the payouts, all were designed to create health of the ecosystem, and that's happened. In many ways, the teams have gotten that success because it was necessary to make them healthy for us to get to build to the next level.
The interest you're seeing of new entrants to come in and buy teams is only an echo of that success. I think there's a lot of things that are setting up well for us. You know, all those pieces about demand, all those pieces about the strength of the system, all set up well for future success. When I mentioned, you know, that 2022 is gonna be a step up, but certainly not the last one. I think we have a long trajectory of success in front of us. I'm very optimistic.
Yeah. That's great. Maybe just if I could do one quick follow-up on the Braves, not to sound like Debbie Downer after the World Series, but there's obviously a lot going on with your RSN partner, to say the least. Is that something that concerns you, Greg, given the revenue contribution that the Braves get from local media rights, as we look into, you know, sort of what's happening with Diamond Sports and DISH and et cetera?
Yes, of course it concerns me, but let me give you a few facts. We have a good deal, not an amazing deal. It's not a Dodgers-like deal at our RSN partner. It is probably one of the two or three most profitable RSNs out there right now. Our territory, 12+ million cable households, is the largest territory that baseball has. When you think about a digital conversion, we're as well set up. When you think about what the alternatives are to the traditional RSN model, if it really does devolve, which I suspect it will over time, we're as well set up and positioned as anybody in baseball. Lots of reasons to think that our RSN partner is doing pretty well. They can continue to do well. The deal is not done till 2028.
We have, as I said, alternatives and opportunities, I think, in the digital footprint, which are unparalleled in baseball.
Thank you.
Thank you. We take our next question from David Karnovsky with J.P. Morgan. Please go ahead, sir. Your line is open.
All right. Thank you. Greg, maybe just to follow on your prior comments, just given the value F1 is creating for the teams and some of the team principals, I think, spoke about achieving, you know, billion-dollar valuations this week. How do you kinda think about what the right economic split should be between F1 and the teams, maybe a little longer run? And then just on the FWONA-A repurchase, do you expect to buy back more shares from here? Or was that kinda more about capturing the discount between the A and the K shares as they widen out a lot over the summer?
I am very happy to see the teams do well, as I think as I said, that was necessary for the success of F1. The new Concorde Agreement has some incentives that as revenue and profits increase, we take back some of that which had been given over the last several deals. You know, I already warned the teams, expect more demands from us based on how much success they've had, and they smiled, so we'll see how those negotiations go. I'm optimistic that we can continue to have success with the teams as we've had over the last couple of years and will both benefit. On the FWONA, I think we liked both the valuation, and we obviously tried to take advantage of the discount. We liked winning twice in that transaction.
As we generate free cash flow at FWON, as we will, you'll see us take actions to try and take advantage of pricing and other things that we think are attractive in the market. You know, as I said earlier, no plan or intent announced today.
Thank you.
Thank you. We take our next question from David Joyce with Barclays . Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Thank you. Appreciate the great numbers on the Austin Grand Prix. Could you also provide color on the per cap spending increases during the third quarter, the average attendance overall at the races as well as with the Paddock Club, just in comparing it to 2019. Into the fourth quarter for the remaining races, and what does the capacity look like? Thanks.
I think that's a hard comparison because in 2019 we had different timing of different races and shifted around. It's not an equivalent thing because the calendar has shifted. We're not prepared to dissect that or announce that forecast for the fourth quarter yet.
Any further color that we can learn about the per cap spending, if you can compare race to race?
I'll let either.
I mean.
Stefano
What-
Stefano, do you wanna comment? I think.
Yeah, what
It's coming up. Go ahead.
Yeah, I mean, what I can see that for sure the last events where people back attending, we saw the increase, of course, all the products of licensing we have growing up because there is really the possibility to share experience and have the right product to buy. That I can say I can see that is happening. What I can add on top of what you said, Greg, is for sure now we are heading to races where we have capacity, full capacity in grandstands and also Paddock Club. That is something that we are looking forward to see people back again.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you.
Next question.
We take our next question from Matthew Harrigan with Benchmark. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Thank you. Pat Symonds, Formula 1's CTO, as you know, was on CNBC very early this morning talking about the improvement in the aerodynamics next year, you know, closer following, better passing, more exciting racing. He also elaborated on the developments in the Saudi Aramco JV that I think you formed in March of last year. He really, as Stefano alluded to, he really talked about, you know, the applications for, you know, road vehicles as well as on track.
I almost have the impression that even though there are some nuances, you know, smaller engines and all that it might even be backward compatible for existing vehicles on the road, which I don't know how reasonable that is, but I didn't think that Stefano completely excluded that either or maybe didn't bother mentioning it. If this is kind of a wild question, but would there be any possibility for your SPAC to get involved in that? I think its mandate is just limited to TMT, but clearly this is something that I, you know. I know it's a moonshot, but it sounds like it's pretty interesting given some of the principals involved like Formula one and Saudi Aramco. Thank you.
I'll let Stefano comment on some of the technical capabilities, and then I'll get on to the SPAC.
Okay, I start from the technical. Like, first of all, we don't have to forget that F1 has always stood for innovative technologies, which can be, and has been always the case, transferred from the racetrack to the production vehicle. This will be the case also in our future development in terms of new technology in having an engine or a powertrain that will be for sure a combined hybrid engine with a sustainable fuel part of this equation. This will be very beneficial because at the end of the day, what we want to claim as a sport platform, there are ways to keep the motorsport at the center of the technological research, not only for the big OEM, but also for the small teams that can offer their technology into a bigger equation.
I think that is really, we are taking the lead on something that we have been always the leader in this way of treating technology versus motorsport. One thing that I want to underline is, we are talking about motorsport, we're talking about the motion. The balance between the high level of research and development and something that the customer and the fans wants to see on the track is a very important balance to respect. Otherwise, you know, we can see other situation where this has not been the case and the platform would have been proven not to be the best one. This will be always the future approach on the technological development of Formula One.
While you know, our SPAC has a pretty broad mandate, and we have nothing to announce today, we certainly do look at the advancement in synthetic fuels and have looked around them as whether there's an investment opportunity, whether it's the SPAC or some other part of Liberty. Haven't found one yet, but certainly are not adverse to the idea and recognize we're in a unique position to try and see opportunities there and actually promote them as well.
Just to push my question, I apologize. I almost got the inference from Pat this morning that this could actually be backward compatible for vehicles that are already on the road. I mean, am I? Did I totally misunderstand that, or is that within the scope of what you're trying to do?
Stefano, you wanna add on?
Yeah. I confirm that. Yeah. No, I think that is absolutely yes. Because that is something that we don't have to forget that all around the world there are billions of cars that needs to be continued in the future. So our answer is with the sustainable fuel, the approach that we are working on, of course, with Aramco, but all the oil suppliers that are in the business of Formula One with the teams are working very hard on that. We get the chance to make sure that this path will be sustainable also for these billions of cars will be around the world in the future.
Okay. Thanks, Greg. Thanks, Stefano.
Thank you.
Thank you. We take our next question from Jason Bazinet with Citi. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
I have sort of maybe a strange question. Do you guys have an estimate in terms of how much capital you think Liberty would need to close the entity discount on Liberty Series if you chose to do that to zero?
No. We don't have an estimate, Jason. Sorry.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. We take our next question from Stephen Laszczyk with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Hi, Greg. Thanks for taking the questions. On Formula One, it sounds like there was a lot of demand on the promoter side to host sprint races for next year. Maybe going off Ben's earlier question, could you discuss the extent to which we should expect to see Formula One monetize the sprint races on your calendar next year? Then maybe more broadly, I was curious how much more room you think there is for Formula One to expand the sprint circuit beyond the six or so races over time.
I'll let you handle it, Stefano. Stefano, did we lose you?
It appears so. Yes, sir.
Okay. I'll take a cut, even though I will not be as eloquent as Stefano. Look, there is a tension. We like it. The fans like it. The teams, you know, and the drivers don't necessarily love it, partly because it's, you know, they know the system and partly because it incurs potential incremental expense for them against the cost cap. There are revenue opportunities around it, both in terms of greater attendance at events, including qualifying, but also in terms of potentially sponsorship of the sprint race and the like. Clearly there is an economic reason, but there's a tension which we're not dismissive of, that it puts more stress on the teams and more stress on the drivers. We'll see how we can manage through those two, you know, counterpoint elements.
Great. Thanks for that. Maybe just one more, if I could. On the Asian broadcast deals that you announced, is there any more detail you can provide on these deals, maybe in terms of how they compared to Fox Sports? Maybe the likelihood that they get renewed past 2022.
We're not, I think, disclosing that. We are somewhat optimistic we can go forward, but we're not at this moment gonna disclose how they compare. Thank you.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. That will conclude our Q&A session today. I would now like to turn the call back over to your host for any additional closing remarks.
Thank you for your interest in Liberty Media. We do hope to see you on November eighteenth in person or virtually at our Investor Day. Until then, have a good one.
Ladies and gentlemen, that conclude today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.